AmStramGram
Devoted Cultist
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2022
- Messages
- 236
(...)
I am in space looking down on Earth. Glorious cloud covered blue ball with the sun in a position where part of the earth was going into darkness. Beside me, on my right a vague figure which I took to be a benevolent guardian or mentor encouraged me to look closely. ‘You have to choose’, this figure said as little flashes of light pinged off in various locations across the globe. ‘These are all the lives available to you. Before you choose, you can see what that life will be’. I chose a pinprick of light and saw all that would be. I’d didn’t like that and a light flashed in the UK. I asked to be shown that and said ‘I’d like that one’. So I chose all this I’m going through now and it’s part of the whole learning process.
The funny thing is, a lot of people out there are saying the same thing.
Fascinating ! Did you know the Greek philosopher Plato described something similar in his "myth of Er", in The Republic ?
Here it goes : Er the Pamphylian was a soldier. He got killed in a war, but a few days or weeks after this traumatic death, he was revived. When he woke up, he told his surprised friends that he had traveled through a desert for a long time, until reaching the Lethe, a river with temptingly fresh waters. Most dead souls ran toward the water in the hope to quench their thirst. However, when they drank, they instantly forgot their past life. After this, they were led to a place where they were allowed to choose their next incarnation. Er said he saw the hero Odysseus / Ulysses be presented with two choices : he could either return to our world as a king or as a shepherd. As he was among those who had resisted the urge to drink the waters of the Lethe, pondering about his unfortunate experiences as a wandering warrior king, Odysseus choose to be reborn as a simple shepherd.
Of course, this is a myth, but your experience does relate to it as you had the choice.
In many Asian reincarnation theories, one is rarely free to consciously choose. One's future incarnation is conditioned by past "karma", as kesavaross explained.
Well, they can "choose", but their choice will still be conditioned. For instance, in some buddhist cults, people believe that the dead will wander through an "in-between" (the "bardo") and witness illusions actually coming from their own mind. Under the influence of these scary or delightful visions, they will choose a new womb. Let's say if in their last life they were completely dominated by bestial instincts, they will envision the womb of an animal as a beautiful palace, and run into it. Only those who are enlightened enough can really choose freely. And the best do not reincarnate at all. At least, that's the point of view of these religions.